Juggernaut (episode)
Voyager finds a damaged Malon freighter which is about to explode, contaminating an entire sector with deadly radiation. Summary Teaser A large Malon export vessel streams through space spewing waste as it goes. A Malon crewmember wanders the ship, playing with a toy. The toy is a small replica ship, he makes it crash into his commander, Fesek. It turns out that the toy is a gift for Fesek's children. All of a sudden, the ship jolts. The first crewmember, Pelk, reports that there is a fluctuation in tank four. Alarms sound throughout the ship. Emergency systems are off-line, and there is a full-scale rupture in tank four. Fesek orders the tank to be ejected. The ejection systems aren't responding, and tank six begins to rupture. Fesek orders a crewman to go into the core and seal the tanks manually. Act One Aboard ''Voyager'', Tuvok teaches B'Elanna Torres a meditation technique. Apparently, Torres lost her temper at the Doctor and is now undergoing Vulcan therapy to control her emotions. She destroyed the Doctor's holocamera. After the incident, Lt. Commander Chakotay ordered B'Elanna to undergo Tuvok's meditation. As Tuvok begins to bring Torres beck to her childhood, she begins to laugh explaining that she pictured him as a child. Finally submitting, Torres tells Tuvok of her first memory of anger. She talks about a boy she knew as a child who often tormented her about being half-Klingon. On one occasion she attacked him while he was on the gyroswing. She sabotaged the machine, and then yanked him from the contraption. She was stopped by Ms. Melvin. Tuvok analyzes B'Elanna's anger, "Your anger was a source of strength, it protected you, gave you courage." He demonstrates how easily provoked B'Elanna is by calling her the name that the boy called her. She gets up and says she has had enough for one day. On the Bridge, Tom Paris asks Tuvok how the meditation went. Tuvok says, "it will be a challenge for both of us." Next, Voyager picks up an automated distress call. Captain Janeway orders a response and the ship moves to intercept. When the Voyager crew responds, all they find are 37 escape pods. all contaminated with theta radiation. Only two persons are alive. They are transported aboard and treated by the Doctor. Both are Malon, and one identifies himself as controller Fesek, the other Pelk. Fesek tells Captain Janeway that their vessel was damaged when cargo containers 4 and 6 ruptured. Every system failed aboard the ship. Sixty crewmen died in minutes. There is about 4 trillion isotons worth of anti-matter waste on board. If that waste ignites, everything within a three light year radius will be destroyed. Janeway orders Tom Paris to back Voyager off five light years; however, Voyager can't generate a stable warp field because of the high concentration of theta radiation. At sublight speed, Voyager could never outrun the explosion, so Janeway orders the crew to intercept the Malon freighter in an attempt to repair it. Act Two On the Bridge, the crew and the Malon discuss their options. Fesek is in favor of hiding Voyager in a nebula where it will be safe. However, Janeway states that she will not abandon the other three ships in the sector, to save herself. They decide that they must send an away team. The control room is contminated, so they must enter the ship in an uncontaminated area and vent the radiation on the other decks. Before they enact the plan, Pelk feels compelled to tell the Captain about Vihaar. Fesek says it is only myth of a monster that lives in the theta storage tanks on Malon vessels. Pelk says that during the evacuation, crewmen saw unknown forms aboard the ship. Fesek counters this by saying that hallucinations are one of the first symptoms of theta radiation poisoning. During the briefing in Main Engineering, Neelix demonstrates his knowledge of waste management citing his experience with a Talaxian garbage scow. Torres continues to antagonize the Malon survivors, almost every comment of hers is directed against them. Chakotay pulls her aside to talk about it, her orders her to keep her temper in check. In the mess hall, Chakotay enters as Neelix gags on some sort of liquid. He says it is not strong enough. Chakotay assures him that the crew will be able to feed themselves, but Neelix insists that he must prepare lunch, dinner, breakfast, and a midnight snack. He is also working on a Talaxian Theta radiation remedy, just in case the Doctor's inoculation fails. He also thanks Cmdr. Chakotay for selecting him for the important mission. Chakotay, B'Elanna Torres, Neelix and both Malon survivors beam aboard and attempt to decompress all decks and contain the explosion risk. The corridor that they enter, is full of highly charged methagenic particles, Torres predicts that there will be an electrostatic cascade. At the last minute she realizes that the tricorders are causing the cascade. An electrical explosion floods the corridor while everyone takes cover. Afterwards, the Malon discover that they must manually open the airlocks. Chakotay sends Fesek and Torres to the injector port, while Pelk stays with the away team. Fesek and B'Elanna have activated the actuators, but the airlock mechanism is jammed. Pelk goes onto the contaminated deck to unlock a manual coupling. He instantly becomes aware of an alien presence aboard. A moment later Chakotay and Neelix hear screams and find Pelk with severe injuries. Pelk claims he saw the "creature" before he loses consciousness and dies. He is beamed to sickbay for an autopsy. Act Three The away team has vented five out of fifteen decks, however at that rate the ship will detonate before they can reach the control room. Janeway orders Tuvok to calculate how to tractor the freighter in to a path to a star of spectral class O. B'Elanna then begins to show signs of radiation poisoning. Chakotay orders Fesek to take B'Elanna to the Malon infirmary for treatment. They will rendezvous outside of the control room. Once they arrive in the infirmary, they discover a body that was being treated for long-term exposure. Fesek informs her that he was a core laborer. This is an occupation with a low survival rate, they work in close proximity to the core. In Astrometrics, Seven of Nine assists Tuvok in the tractor beam plan calculations. She has also created a Plan C, to protect Voyager from radiation in the event of a failure. Later, when the remaining four away team members attempt to decompress deck 3, their own deck is decompressed. They barely make it out, but Lieutenant Commander Chakotay is hit by debris and loses consciousness. He is transported to sickbay. As they argue over whose fault it was, a mysterious figure watches them from hiding without their knowledge. Act Four Tuvok expresses his concern that B'Elanna is now in command of the away team. He offers to beam over and take command himself. However the Captain has confidence in Torres' ability. She continues to prepare the tractor beam plan. Neelix reports to Torres that they have a clear path to the control room, but she is meditating. Finally Torres, Neelix and Fesek reach the control room. As they attempt to seal the ruptured tanks, power fails. In the meantime, the Doctor finds that Pelk was attacked by some lifeform that has grown resistant to theta radiation. He relays this to astrometrics, where Seven finds the creature closing in on Torres and Neelix' position. Voyager has no choice now but to alter the freighter's trajectory with the tractor beam. However, the away team cannot be beamed out through the dampening field. The "creature" attacks Neelix, but there is too much gas to see the attacker. Suddenly, Neelix stumbles out of the mist with heavy radiation burns. As Fesek tries to pry the hatch open, the "creature" attacks him from behind. B'Elanna grabs a metal pipe to attampt to defend him. Act Five The "creature", known in Malon myth as a Vihaar, turns out to be a Malon core laborer named Dremk, who has set out to sabotage the ship in order to show to the Malon that this form of shipping of waste should be banned. Torres tries to reason with him while she wages an inner battle between her anger at the dangerous situation she's been placed in and her desire to do the right thing. She tells him she understands his anger and that she is on his side, but he will not give up his cause. B'Elanna knocks him out using a piece of piping, reluctantly realizing that sometimes her Klingon aggressiveness is the only way out of a situation. She, Neelix and Fesek flee the control room and are beamed out just before the freighter flies into the star and explodes. Later on, in Sickbay the Doctor has healed the away team as best he can. The Captain has contacted a nearby Malon Transport to take Fesek home. He wonders how he can explain the events to his superiors. B'Elanna is finally able to take her sonic shower. Memorable Quotes "Take it from me, getting B'Elanna to control her temper is like convincing a Ferengi to leave his estate to charity." : - Tom Paris, to Tuvok "Once you get past the choking reflex, it's really not so bad." : - Neelix, about his radiation remedy "With any luck, we won't be needing it." "I didn't think Vulcans believed in luck." "As a rule, we don't, but serving with Captain Janeway has taught me otherwise." "She does tend to succeed more than random chance would allow." : - Tuvok and Seven of Nine Background Information * Lee Arenberg previously played a hatrick of Ferengi, namely Gral, Prak and Bok in the episodes , and respectively. Ron Canada played Martin Benbeck in and Ch'Pok in . * In this episode we get our first look at a sonic shower in action. * This episode marks the final appearance of the Malon. * The Malon freighter's command room is a re-dress of the Borg Queen's chamber, last seen in the episode . Links and References Guest Stars *Ron Canada as Fesek *Lee Arenberg as Pelk *Scott Klace as Dremk (Vihaar) *Alexander Enberg as Malon #3 *Tarik Ergin as Ayala (uncredited) References antimatter waste; Daniel Byrd; core laborer; Dremk; escape pod; Malon; Malon export vessel; Malon Prime; Ms. Melvin; methogenic particle; O-type star; Pelk; Rama leaf; Sivad; sonic shower; theta radiation; theta storage tank; Vihaar; Ferengi |next= }} Category:VOY episodes de:Verheerende Gewalt es:Juggernaut fr:Juggernaut nl:Juggernaut